Verdict Split On Counts In Gas Tax Case

July 16, 1986|By KATIE SPRINGER, Staff Writer

William Ferrante, who was branded by a prosecutor as ``a shark in a cesspool,`` was found innocent Tuesday of racketeering but guilty of playing a lesser role in a multimillion-dollar gasoline-tax scam.

Ferrante, 40, of Pompano Beach was convicted of conspiracy to commit racketeering and two counts of grand theft. He was acquitted of other charges, including racketeering and failure to account for taxes collected.

``All I can say is I`m innocent,`` Ferrante said after the verdicts were announced, five hours after the jury began deliberating.

Broward Circuit Judge Larry Korda will sentence him Aug. 8.

Assistant State Attorney Fred Damski said Ferrante took part in a complex scheme to steal about $50 million in federal, state and local gasoline taxes in South Florida.

``That money, rather than going to fix our highways, went into the coffers of the people involved in the case,`` he said.

Damski said Ferrante worked for Michael Franzese, a reputed Colombo crime family captain who is serving time in federal prison for helping mastermind the scheme.

``(Ferrante`s) function was to be the eyes and ears for Michael,`` Damski said.

Ferrante`s lawyer, Jayne Weintraub, said her client was being charged in the plot simply because he grew up with Franzese.

``William Ferrante is not to be found guilty of growing up with Michael Franzese,`` she told the jury. ``That`s what this case is all about. It`s not who you do business with but who you know.``

Weintraub accused state witnesses of implicating her client just to please the state and thus avoid lengthy prison terms.

``Wasn`t Bill just a name thrown out by these people making deals for themselves?`` she asked.

Damski said Ferrante was not a major player in the tax fraud case, but that his job included collecting debts and running a spinoff petroleum wholesale company. Twenty-six people were arrested in the scam.

Damski described Ferrante as ``a shark in a cesspool`` who did his job by intimidating others.

To make their money, fly-by-night wholesalers arranged a string of untaxed sales to each other that would take months for the state`s auditors to follow, investigators said. In the meantime, the gas would be sold to retailers at a cut rate, the gas tax would be pocketed by the wholesaler, the businesses dismantled and the state left without its revenue.